yuran@chinadaily.com.cn

The decision to raise children in Shanghai, is no longer an easy one for young couples. Right from the beginning there is the struggle to find beds in the city's overcrowded maternity wards. Then comes the stresses of how raising a child will affect career, and income. Then there are concerns for the child's education and living environment.

In order to get a hospital bed for the immediate post-natal period in Shanghai, expectant mothers are advised to make a reservation at least 8 months in advance. It's a situation reflected in statements from most maternity and child health hospitals earlier this year, too many women are giving birth.

"I made the reservation for a single room when I knew I was two-month pregnant. I ended up sharing a single room with other two mothers after the baby was born," said Liang Yuan, who gave birth to a baby boy at a local maternity and childcare hospital in May.

Liang added she was quite lucky to have the room at about 2,000 yuan per day. Some of the new mothers who had failed to make reservations were forced to sleep in beds set up along the corridors.

Not only are pregnant moms in Shanghai struggling for hospital beds, parents from other cities are trying to squeeze into the already over-stretched hospitals because they believe the doctors and health care system in Shanghai are more professional.

"I chose to come to Shanghai for having the baby because I believe that the quality of health care in the hospitals is much higher and there are more medical experts, offering more professional services," said Yu Baihui, a woman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, who is six months pregnant. She managed to make the reservation in a foreign-invested hospital to have her baby in October.

After giving birth, there are more problems to worry about and solve while the child is growing up.

Food safety and worsening pollution in Shanghai has caused more parents to worry about whether their children are eating safe food and living in a clean environment.

"I have to put in orders for the food every two weeks to make sure that my son is able to eat all imported products at least at his early age," said Chen Ye, the mother of a five-month old baby who is drinking powdered milk and eating foreign manufactured food supplements.

Chen added that she rarely took her baby son out for fresh air because pollution in the city is quite severe. Too many cars run the streets on a daily basis and the frequency of extreme weather is increasing.

"Compared to international cities like London and Paris, the environment in Shanghai is quite poor. It is getting better with factories moving outside the city creating some improvement for local residents," said Huang Minsheng, the director in the College of Resources and Environmental Science, East China Normal University based in Shanghai.

Education is also a major concern among parents, many of whom put too much hope in their children for future success. Although some parents insist on sending their children to international schools with an all English curriculum, most are quite pleased with the local system.

He Jiajing, father of a five-year old son, said that Shanghai has one of the highest standards of education in China, offering more freedom to develop practical abilities and fewer burdens of writing essays and reports for students.

From the opinions of experts, the quality of education in Shanghai is good but the competition for jobs is too tough for many graduates to survive.

"Although the students are less burdened than they used to be at schools, they still have to compete for the limited high paying jobs while living expenses and the property costs are climbing quickly," said Huang Hongji, a child study expert of Shanghai Normal University.

Sending their children abroad has become the trend for parents who think the quality of education in Shanghai still is not good enough compared to countries like the United Kingdom and United States.

"I want my daughter to get a better education on manners and practical abilities, which she probably will fail to learn if she stays in China for further education," said Chen Xiuqing, a property developer in Shanghai. He sent his daughter to take her eighth grade at the Queenswood School, a well-known girls-only independent Methodist school in the UK last year.

The tuition fee per semester for his daughter is 10,000 pounds including accommodation, which Chen recognizes is worth the money if his daughter manages to graduate from an excellent university and find a good job in the UK.

"With more people getting rich, they want to let their kids have the best education they are able to offer by sending them out of the country for further education, which is recognized as a final solution to the perfectly happy family," said Huang, the child study expert.

(HK Edition 08/07/2012 page4)